Where to locate your business or a new facility for your
business is a complicated decision. Many variables are involved, and if you are
considering a location outside of the U.S., there are many factors that may not
be obvious. At Commerce, we have been focused on making this decision and all
of its moving parts easier to digest, and a major part of that is Commerce’s
ACE Tool.

First released in April 2013, the Assess Costs Everywhere (ACE) tool
outlines the wide range of costs and risks associated with offshore production,
and provides links to important public and private resources, so that firms can
more accurately assess the total cost of operating overseas.

Today we have updated the data and deepened the analysis,
but the original conclusions remain as fresh as ever. Multiple costs and
risks--some visible and some hidden--accompany firms' decisions about where to
set up a factory and the supply chain.

I have had the pleasure of meeting frequently with
business owners from across the country. They talk about where their challenges
are in growing and sustaining their businesses, and they also talk about how
locating production abroad hasn’t always turned out as well as they had hoped.
Not surprisingly, during our current economic recovery and expansion, news
reports and private consultants have repeatedly echoed that thinking.
Increasingly we hear that U.S. companies that previously took their operations
or supply chains overseas are now reshoring, or insourcing, bringing operations
and supply chains back home to America.

The ACE Tool is intended to help businesses think through
this complicated decision, and provide easy access to innovative research and
thinking on issues related to site selection and supply chains. The ACE Tool is
grounded in the forward-thinking work of Harry Moser of ReshoreNow.org and
Rep. Frank Wolf, who called on Commerce to bring this effort to fruition. The
Department of Commerce developed ACE in response to Rep. Wolf's call to help
achieve our shared goals of boosting U.S. economic growth and ensuring that
America remains competitive in manufacturing.